Human Resources 

...Managing the Association’s Most 

Valuable Asset 

Human resource management is a 

balancing act. At one extreme, you hire 

qualified people who are well suited to 

meet the needs of the business. At the 

other extreme, you train and develop 

employees to meet those needs. Most 

employee associations fall between the two 

extremes. Essentially, the employee 

association’s goal is to hire or promote the 

best qualified person or 

people it can find and 

afford. Afford? Hmmm. 

That’s a topic for another 

discussion. Best qualified 

you can find? That, I 

believe, we can address. 

 Where to begin. You’ve 

identified the need to fill a 

vacancy. You’ll need a job 

posting. The job posting 

should include the job title, 

brief description of duties 

to be performed, duty hours, duty location, 

guidelines for application, and the last date 

to apply, at a minimum. You may also 

include information pertaining to pay and 

benefits (as appropriate for your particular 

situation). Also consider stating the 

minimum qualifications required and those 

qualifications desired. The posting should 

clearly indicate that the position is not 

a USG position. In fact, we caution 

associations from the use of USG job 

applications. Employee associations 

should develop a standard job application 

to provide to applicants. 

The next step is posting the job. Where 

will your applicant pool come from? 

Employee associations have a great deal of 

flexibility in the hiring process and are not 

required to follow USG regulations and 

policies pertaining to the recruitment and 

retention of association employees. As 

such, your applicant pool may be a 

combination of eligible 

family members, U.S. 

citizens, local national 

citizens, and third 

country national 

citizens. Keep in mind, 

employee association 

positions are not subject 

to the priority placement 

of eligible family 

members at post. 

Bottom line, you hire the 

best qualified person 

you can find and afford. 

So... the posting closes and all 

applications are collected. Applications 

should be reviewed in their entirety prior 

to scheduling interviews. Determine who 

will review the applications. For example, 

applications for a cashier position should 

be reviewed by the activity manager (i.e., 

commissary manager, video club manager, 

club manager) or the general manager 

“Employee 

associations are not 

required to follow 

USG regulations 

and policies 

pertaining to the 

recruitment and 

retention of 
where no activity manager exists. 

Applications for the position of general 

manager should be reviewed by the Board 

of Directors or hiring/selection committee 

delegated by the Board. Applicants should 

be ranked based on their level of education 

and work experience. Other experience 

may be considered as it may relate to the 

duties to be performed. All interviews 

should be conducted by the same 

individual or individuals to ensure 

continuity and fairness in the selection 

process. Standard questions should be 

developed for use in 

interviews to include some 

job-specific questions. For 

example, accounting 

applicants should be queried 

on basic accounting 

principles. 

Upon completion of all 

interviews, a selection may 

be made and an offer 

extended to the selected applicant. 

The next course of action is often 

overlooked by many associations. You’ve 

selected the new employee, settled on a 

compensation package and agreed to a 

start date. The very next action is to draft 

an employment agreement outlining those 

details. A boilerplate employment 

agreement is available from the CR 

intranet site. Access to the site is via the 

Department’s internet explorer. Click on 

Administration (M/A), scroll down to 

Office of Operations, and click on Office 

of Commissary and Recreation Affairs. 

The boilerplate may be downloaded from 

the library. 

The employment agreement must take 

into account local labor laws as they apply 

to employees. (In some countries local 

labor laws may also apply to third country 

nationals and/or U.S. citizens.) Often, 

post’s human resources office can provide 

guidance pertaining to local labor laws. 

Keep in mind, a signed contract will not 

supercede applicable labor laws. Once 

drafted, feel free to request a review from 

the CR staff. In general, we can point out 

potential areas of concern and request a 

legal opinion, if necessary. However, we 

will be unable to identify violations of 

local labor laws. For that, you must utilize 

a local attorney or other individual at post 

intimately familiar with such laws. 

Now that you have carefully crafted the 

employment agreement, you need only 

obtain the appropriate signatures. 

Employment agreements 

should contain one Board 

member signature (usually 

the Board Chair) and the 

employee’s signature. 

Present the employment 

agreement to the employee 

along with his/her 

description of duties. Upon 

signature, a copy of the 

agreement should be provided to the 

employee. The original document should 

be retained in the employee’s file. 

What’s next? Now that your newly 

appointed employee is on staff, how do 

you retain him/her? You must ensure that 

the individual is provided the necessary 

tools to perform the job while developing 

his/her skills. To do so will require a 

combination of resource materials, 

training, and feedback. Resource materials 

and on-the-job training must be developed 

in-house and tailored to each individual 

employee associations’ needs. The best 

method for providing and receiving 

feedback is performance reviews. In the 

next issue of the CRonicle, we’ll follow-up 

this article with guidance for developing 

employee standards, implementing the 

performance review process, and tips for 

incentives that will help to keep your 

employees happy. 
Cooling Off 

and Keeping 

Safe   

Safe Pool Operations Begin With You 

It’s practically summertime in 

Washington. Soon, the swimming pools 

will be filled with screams of excitement. 

Although employee association swimming 

pools do not follow the same period of 

operation as do those in the U.S., what all 

swimming pools should have in common is 

safety. 

 A safe pool operation begins with the 

rules. Bilingual signs, if appropriate, 

stating the bather’s rules must be posted in 

prominent areas surrounding the pool to 

inform users of hazards and prohibitions. 

Association management may find it 

necessary to develop specific rules for 

their needs. Basic rules include the 

following: 

 There will be no swimming unless the 

lifeguard is present. 

 No horseplay – no running, pushing, 

shoving, or dunking 

 No diving (except where designated) 

 No glass or alcoholic beverages in the 

pool area 

 No children without adult supervision 

 Swimmers must shower before 

entering the pool 

 No individuals under the influence of 

alcohol or drugs in or around the pool 

 No eating, drinking, or smoking 

(except in designated areas) 

 No pets 

 In the event of a rescue or any 

emergency/serious injury, Post 1 must 

be notified immediately 

Remember, it is the association’s 

responsibility to ensure that unauthorized 

users are kept out of the pool area. It is 

best to enclose the pool area with a fence 

preferably seven feet high (five minimum). 

In addition, the fence should include selfclosing, self-latching lockable hardware to 

remain locked during non-use hours. 

Diving is a major concern. The 

following measures should be taken to 

prevent incidents of injury as a result of 

diving: 

 Diving must be prohibited in the 

absence of a diving board. 

 Bathers must not be allowed to dive 

into shallow areas of the pool. 

 The pool must be clearly marked to 

designate depth. 

 The pool must be cleaned at regular 

intervals to ensure clear water. 

 Diving traffic must be monitored to 

prevent collisions. 

 Divers must be instructed to steer up 

immediately upon entering the water. 

Even with the safest of measures, accidents 

can occur. The Department’s Office of 

Safety/Health and Environmental 

Management (SHEM) encourages the use 

of lifeguards during all hours of operation. 

However, if it is truly impossible to 

provide trained lifeguards, a “responsible 

person” must be designated and present at 

all times. “Responsible person” is defined 

as a person knowledgeable in water safety, 

over 18 years old, who is a former 

lifeguard, swimming instructor, or other 

person who has demonstrated water safety 

skills. Aquatic safety is dependent upon 

the existence of at least one caring 

responsible person when someone is in the 

water. Remember, pool safety is 

everyone’s responsibility. 

 Guidelines pertaining to swimming pool 

characteristics and physical safeguards are 

available from SHEM’s Safety, 

Occupational Health, and Environmental 
Management Resource Guide, Volume 1, 

Third Edition. 

And the Winners 

Are... 

In March, Ms. Elizabeth 

Konick of the Bucharest 

Employees Recreation 

Association (BERA) in 

Romania was selected as 

the Employee Association 

Manager of the Year for 

2000. In her nomination, the BERA Board 

most notably cited Elizabeth for her 

resounding impact on the BERA and the 

role she played in greatly improving 

morale at post. 

 Congratulations to Ms. Jill Johnson of 

the U.S. Embassy Recreation Association 

(USERA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Mr. 

Cosmas Vrampas of the American 

Employees Association (AEA) in 

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for second 

and third places, respectively. 

 

The remaining nominees in alphabetical 

order by location are: 

Jodi Hu – Beijing, China 

Karen McKeever – Brussels, Belgium 

Mai Landymore – Chennai, India 

Terry Weber – Dakar, Senegal 

Michael Angara – Moscow, Russia 

Barbara Jaeger – Olso, Norway 

Carmen Jimenez – Panama City, Panama 

Christy Chesnutt – Vienna, Austria 

Malgorzata Kuhn – Warsaw, Poland 

 The annual award process is announced 

each January. Nominations are accepted 

through mid-February and should be 

submitted by Boards of Directors based 

upon the manager’s performance for the 

calendar year just prior. The winners 

receive framed certificates and a cash 

award (in the amount of $1000, $600, and 

$300, for first, second and third places, 

respectively). Copies of this year’s 

winning nominations are available from 

CR upon request. 

 Congratulations again to the winners 

and nominees for 

making 2000 a great 

year for your 

associations! 

What’s 

News 

Do you know the latest additions to the CR 

intranet site? If not, please take note of the 

following changes. 

 Collective cable #01-001 (Reporting 

Requirements for Year 2001) 

 Collective cable #01-002 (Insurance 

Requirements/Optional Coverage) 

 Collective cable #01-003 (Federal 

Tax Deposits) 

 CRonicle newsletter, second quarter 

2001 edition 

 Updated CR staff list 

We have also revised the Internal 

Revenue Service instructional to include 

changes in the IRS tax code for year 2001 

and posted the recently revised Board of 

Directors Handbook on the site. 

 Access to the site is via the 

Department’s internet explorer. Click on 

“Administration M/A”, scroll down to 

“Office of Operations (OPR)”, and click 

on “Office of Commissary and Recreation 

Affairs (A/OPR/CR)”. 

 If you have any suggestions for 

improving our site (and some of our best 

initiatives come from suggestions from the 

field) or would like assistance in finding 

guidance on a particular subject from the 

site, please contact Operations Team 

Leader Annie Dickson by phone, fax, 

email, internet (crlogon@erols.com), or 

via our intranet site. Please remember to 
include your post name (city, country) 

when contacting us. 

 

IT ALL ADDS UP 

Last year, we began a feature 

column to be dedicated to 

accounting/financial related 

issues. This quarter, we 

report on budgets. 

Unfortunately, as a staff we find it fairly 

common that employee associations do not 

operate with budgets. The fact is that 

budgets are not mandated. Maybe, they 

should be. 

No matter how small the operation, a 

budget is the single most effective 

financial management tool available to 

Boards of Directors. A budget serves to 

summarize the goals of management in a 

formal plan and allows the Board to 

quantify targets for sales, cost of goods 

sold, operating expenses, net income, and 

cash flow. Budgeting becomes especially 

important for associations experiencing 

cash flow problems. By budgeting, 

management is able to respond to change 

in an efficient manner. It obliges the 

Board to think ahead and prepare for the 

affects of such things as a change in the 

composition of the membership, loss of 

sales, or replacement of fixed assets, to 

name a few. Budgeting also compels the 

Board to compare the success of one 

operation (e.g., commissary) to other 

operations (e.g., cafeteria, preschool, etc.) 

keeping in mind the overall goal that each 

revenue generating activity should be 

financially self-sustaining. 

In preparing the budget, historical data 

and trends generally serve as the 

benchmark (provided historical data is 

reasonably representative of present day 

operations). Analyzing sales is the starting 

point for budgeting for most associations 

because inventory levels, purchases, and 

operating expenses are, by and large, 

determined based on sales activity. Begin 

by listing known expenses and cash 

outlays from previous years. Review these 

and note any trends as increasing or 

decreasing. Are increases in expenses 

controllable or, are they fixed? 

Project membership demographics for 

the next calendar year. How will the 

demographics affect sales and use of 

services? 

Review past years’ markup policy on 

sales and services. Did the markup cover 

costs related to the sales/services? Did the 

revenues cover overhead expenses? Was 

the markup too low to provide for an 

adequate profit margin? Or, did 

unanticipated expenses arise? 

Review present inventory to determine 

salability. Measures should be in place to 

ensure that inventory replenishment 

selections meet the needs of the 

membership. 

Plan for contingencies. Analyze noncash expenses such as depreciation. 

Anticipate the replacement of fully 

depreciated assets. 

After completing the above steps, you’ll 

have the necessary tools to project 

revenues, expenses, and cash 

disbursements. These projections should 

be detailed in the budget. The budget 

should be prepared based on the 

association’s reporting year – in other 

words, on a calendar year basis. 

The budgeting process does not end 

with the preparation of the report. For a 

budget to be effective, management must 

continuously compare actual performance 

with planned performance. Actual results 

should be monitored on a monthly basis. 

In fact, the Board should receive monthly 

actual vs. projected financial statements. 

Monitoring actual results will allow the 

Board to implement corrective measures in 

a timely manner and to assure that money 
is being spent as the Board has voted it be 

spent. 

Questions regarding the budgeting 

process may be directed to the CR 

Accounting Team. 

As you can see, the 

CR mailbox is still a bit 

empty. At the time of 

this writing, we are just a 

few short weeks from the 

June 1 submission of the 

compliance certification. 

The May 1 deadline for the submission of 

the questionnaire, association prepared 

financial statements, and audit report has 

come and gone. 

Unfortunately, a number of employee 

associations remain delinquent in 

submitting one or more of these reporting 

requirements. We encourage employee 

associations to meet these deadlines and 

keep us informed of any anticipated 

delays. The information we gather from 

these reports assists us in supporting you. 

For those associations currently 

delinquent in submitting one or more 

reports, please contact us and request an 

extension of the due date (if you have not 

already done so). We are available by 

phone (202)663-1330, fax (202)663-1329, 

Department email (A/OPR/CR), and via 

the internet (CRLOGON@EROLS.COM). 

Requests may also be made via cable 

slugged for “A/OPR/CR”. 

Remaining reporting requirements for 

CY01 are as follows: 

DUE JUNE 1, 2001: 

 Compliance Certification (prepared by 

the Principal Officer of his/her 

designee to the employee association 

board). 

DUE AUGUST 15, 2001: 

 Semi-annual Association Prepared 

Financial Statements for the period 

January 1 – June 30, 2001. 

DUE NOVEMBER 1, 2001: 

 Assessment Payment (based on CY00 

gross revenue). 

Back Talk 

We heard that... 

In Costa Rica...men shake 

hands. Costa Rican women 

pat left arms. Women who are good 

friends will kiss cheeks. 

In Columbia...when dining, many 

Colombians use the continental style of 

eating, with the fork always remaining in 

the left hand. 

In New Zealand...chewing gum and using 

toothpicks in public are considered bad 

manners. 

In Burma....the feet are considered 

unclean and therefore it is very rude to 

raise your feet, such as placing them on a 

table or desktop. 

In Iran...avoid blowing your nose in 

public. 

In Kenya...using the left hand to receive a 

gift is considered impolite. 

In Austria...stroking an imaginary beard 

signifies that someone’s comment is old 

and worn. 

In the next issue 

of the CRonicle, 

we will serve up 

a feature article 

providing guidance for 

developing employee standards 

and implementing the performance review 

process. We will also continue our feature 
column “It All Adds Up” with an 

accounting topic, and also introduce you to 

a new CR employee. Until then, that’s all 

folks!